"I lost a friend Wednesday in a tree accident," said Christie Bryant of the Georgia Association of Arborists. She said her friend, Manuel Moran, died this week while taking down a tree in Alpharetta in what she says was a preventable accident.
"We have had a death every month of 2024 in this industry," Bryant said.
Though some tree removal companies are careful to safely equip and train their workers, Bryant, who is an arborist, says the industry’s safety standards are strictly voluntary. And she said too often, tree workers aren’t sufficiently protected.
"There are these rules about PPE and about hard hats and safety glasses and chain saws. But the consumer doesn’t know. And we can’t regulate. So, who regulates? Nobody regulates," Bryant said.
"It’s one of the most dangerous careers in America and probably the world," state Rep. Victor Anderson (R-Cornelia) told the House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs committee in February.
Earlier this year, Georgia lawmakers created a study committee to come up with enforceable regulations in the tree removal industry.
But a state solution would be at least a year away – maybe longer. Bryant said for now, customers are the tree industry’s best hope by insisting on safe work practices.
"There is no licensure in tree care and that should terrify everybody that’s getting tree work done," Bryant said.
Bryant explained though most industries want fewer government regulations, the tree industry is different because the standards vary so widely from company to company – and because the consequences can be so tragic.
